U.S. actress Goldie Hawn poses on the red carpet as she arrives at the screening of the film ‘Elegy’ at the 58th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 10, 2008.  Photo by Fabrizio Bensch

Each year film stars from all over the World bring their gloss and glamour to the red carpets of the worlds’ most important film festivals such as Berlin, Cannes and Venice. With them come hundreds of photographers, writers and TV crews all on the hunt for stars. The Berlinale film festival in February opens the annual season in the winter cold of the German capital. Paparazzi stalk stars outside restaurants and hotels all looking for exclusive pictures. We concentrate more on the daily photo calls, press conferences and the red carpet premieres at the festival cinema. I have covered the festival nearly every year since 1991 and things have changed a lot in that time. Where there used to be only a couple of dozen of us at press conferences and premieres but today in the digital age there are at least 100 accredited photographers producing tens of thousands of images every day from the Berlinale.

Guests arrive at the screening of the opening film ‘Shine A Light’ running in competition at the 58th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 7, 2008.
Photo by Fabrizio Bensch

IN addition to me our team of photographers included Tobias Schwarz, Johannes Eisele, Christian Charisius, Hannibal Hanschke all working long days running from one event to the next in Potsdamer Square where the Berlinale cinema is located. As well as the usual remote filing our editorial team of Amanda Andersen, Michael Leckel, Kirill Iordansky and Wolfgang Ratty used our remote editing system, which allowed them to edit events live from the ‘comfort’ of the Berlin office. These days everything is always ‘on deadline’. When there are stars like the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Penelope Cruz at an event everyone wants the pictures now!.

 
 
U.S. director Martin Scorsese (C) poses with Rolling Stones members Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ron Wood and Mick Jagger on the red carpet as they arrive for the screening of the opening film ‘Shine A Light’ at the 58th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 7, 2008. Photo by Johannes Eisele
 

Madonna poses during a photocall to present her film ‘Filth And Wisdom’ running at the 58th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin February 13, 2008.
Photo by Hannibal Hanschke

A photocall often takes just minutes. As soon as a star like Madonna emerged in front of the blue backcloth their would be a deafening noise from the assembled media - “Look left! Look straight ahead! Over here!”.

DDP Photographer Michael Kappeler sets up his remote
camera before the photocall with pop star Madonna
 

This view is from my remote camera fired synchronously with my other cameras.

A festival is as much about those moments as anything else, it is just like a film… everything is an illusion.

Gold and Silver Bear awards are lined up for the fortcoming Berlinale film festival at the Noiak bronze foundry in Berlin February 5, 2008. Phot by Fabrizio Bensch

Here are some more pictures from the Berlinale - 

http://pictures.reuters.com/c/C.aspx?VP= Mod_EmailPackage.EmailReceiver_VPage&RP= Flash&PID=2C04EB9ORTA4&M=PPA&SST=1&SH=F
 

Carnival. The fun holiday that Brazilians take seriously.

Carnival means a livelihood for the multi-million dollar tourist industry, and for the artisans that create parade floats and revelers’ costumes. It means 90 minutes of glory for thousands of slum dwellers parading in Rio’s Sambadrome, and five days of non-stop partying for millions of revelers, foreign and national.

And it means a lot of work for us photographers, even though it looks like so much fun.

As with many things in life, the first time covering Carnival is the best. The novelty of that first immersion in Rio’s parade of samba schools combines with the grandeur and opulence to neutralize the fatigue of working two consecutive nights with little sleep in-between.

It’s like being jet lagged in paradise.

Paradise in this case is seven blocks long and populated by innumerable figures and personalities - animal, vegetable and mineral. The side-by-side existence of the most gut-wrenching to the most frivolous samba school themes, is startling. Themes at this year’s parade ranged from the Portuguese colonization of Brazil, the origins of life and the Spanish Inquisition, to the trauma of birth and the Kama Sutra.

Even after having covered several Carnivals, we photographers still get so caught up in the expectation of the looming parade that we inevitably over-photograph the first school. Then just as we settle in to a sustainable rhythm that should carry us through both nights to a well-edited, worthy picture file, fatigue sets in and we begin to fade towards daybreak.

I still remember the last minutes of the 2003 parade. A dozen flawlessly-choreographed skeletons from the Imperatriz school danced arm-in-arm to a samba that still echoes in my head. Perfectly programmed to hit the runway as the day was dawning and my mind was waning, I was so thrilled that I ran to file half a dozen pictures just of them. A clear overfile, in retrospect.

Photographers trek from dusk to dawn up and down the long Sambadrome floor, weaving in and out of the dancers that leave us no room and make no concessions. We attempt to capture the parade’s magnificence and meaning, and avoid being mauled and mangled by the contraptions they wear. It isn’t easy.

The most recurring theme during my four Carnivals has been the Amazon rain forest, with variations on global warming and deforestation in the form of protest. Themes that are tied to current events are wonderful for us, as the interest reaches a wider audience.

This year’s recurring theme was the 100^th anniversary of the first Japanese immigration to Brazil. Interest in Japan made it easier to file more pictures than usual.

A storm was generated by the Viradouro school’s float depicting a pile of twisted bodies of Holocaust victims, meant to show how evil mankind can be. A judge banned the float by court order after Reuters published pictures of it a few days before the parade. For journalists, that kind of controversy breathes new life into an annual event, making a repetitive story interesting all over again.

This year, my fourth at the Rio parade, was by far my hardest. The fatigue set in earlier and I sensed fewer of those magic moments that make the event easy to photograph. My paradise was lost, but I was still jet lagged.

Reuters’ Carnival veteran Sergio Moraes admirably covered the parade from start to finish with all the walking involved and hours spent shooting from a ladder chained to the perimeter, without announcing with bells or whistles that this was his 20^th parade. Twenty years of jet lag.

I asked Sergio what it was like covering the world’s biggest party for the 20^th time and his answer was anything but surprising. “The hardest thing is to find a different picture.”

(more 2008 Carnival pictures here)

There is just a split-second to decide. Whether to step aside or step on and cling to the speeding police van taking the 1993 Mumbai blasts-accused Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt from a court in Mumbai to the jail in Pune, through crowds of fans, onlookers and hordes of media persons trying to get at least one usable frame or a clip. With photographers clinging onto each side of the van, like a pack of wild cats attacking an elephant, the rickety vehicle takes a violent turn and accelerates at the maximum speed it can, as if to get rid of its sticky predators. Its a tough call, whether to do what comes naturally to a news photographer or follow the diktat of “safety first”. 

After several days of chasing and shooting Dutt, through wild hysteric crowds (shooting most of the frames blind and with one hand); after braving policemen who seemed as ferocious as any ruthless defender in the British Premier League, (of course Beckham never had to worry about a baton in the hands of any defender), and after hours and hours of waiting everyday and dogging the Indian movie star till wherever and whenever possible - Punit (my colleague) and I had to draw a line in this increasingly paparazzi style of coverage. This far having been influenced by the frenzy of our other media counterparts, we had to regroup our thinking and put this coverage in perspective.  We had to start approaching it as another news coverage sans the paparazzi-style celebrity chasing. Safety had to be our first norm, which I conveyed to Punit. 

And with Dutt’s police van seemingly aiming to break all acceleration records, it was miraculous that no photographer got seriously injured. Many photographers did not even get a proper foothold on the speeding van and were clinging on for dear life, evading other passing vehicles.  And all this for a movie actor, who had been shot from all angles the previous day!

As for us, I was glad neither of us tried to test our cowboy skills.  Punit was all prepared to ride pillion on a friend’s bike and catch up with the van at the next few traffic intersections - which he did and got the pictures.  It was a tough call as we had to restrain our photographer’s instincts and put on the thinking cap!  Chasing a police van was not the most desirable method, but in these circumstances it was the safest and perhaps our only choice.

This was repeated yet again - only this time, instead of being handcuffed, two movie stars were tying the knot.

And we photographers felt it real tight around our neck!

So there we were again — waiting from 8 in the morning till, well, early next morning with no food or water, in front of Bollywood icon Amitabh Bhachchan’s house, on the day his son and actor Abhisekh got married to former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.

Standing with a group of other media persons, with no place to turn or change position. In fact, no flexibility to even visit a loo! Just enough space to hold up the camera and wait indefinitely, till the bride or groom-to-be emerged or at least a celebrity guest. And though the bride and groom didn’t show up, whenever a high-profile guest did, they set off some frenzied activity, even fisticuffs between the photographers, television journalists and the policemen.

Despite all the effort, the lack of a good photo-opportunity and dearth of images of the newly-wed couple, this too soon turned out to be a free for all, paparazzi-style coverage.  The wedding coverage soon deteriorated into a car chase at 3 am in pitch darkness !

And that’s were we drew our line and opted out - out of this midnight paparazzo drama !

Well, the drama continued the next day too. And during a baton charge by security personnel, several photojournalists got injured and one of them hospitalized with serious injuries received from the butt of a rifle.

2008 saw the final metamorphosis of this new genre of photography - new at least to this country. Chasing music world’s very own “Material girl” during her visit to the old quarters of Mumbai, seemed right out of a Hollywood film. More than a dozen cars and bikes chased the carcade of Madonna , like the tail of a comet,  through crowded streets of Mumbai, leaving pedestrians gaping at this wild and motley convoy that ignored speed limits, one-way streets and traffic lights. Even traffic cops were caught unaware, and before they could make sense, the comet and its tail would have disappeared from their sight in a jiffy.

And everytime Madonna’s car stopped it would send photographers and cameramen into a frenzy - abandoning their vehicles on the roads and rushing towards her car with cameras hanging from their shoulders. It was surprising that no photographer got injured, either as a result of the crush or the baton-wielding policemen.

This time too, most of us had no choice. Either we follow her and get her pictures or not get pictures at all. And irrespective of the organisation we belonged to, considering this news-worthy ,we all followed her,  though with varying degrees of intensity. It made by stomach churn, to see some enthusiastic bikers almost come in the way of Madonna’s speeding carcade.

After following Madonna for more than a couple of hours, I was joined by Punit. Taking his card, I left to file a few early pictures. At the end, it seemed worth it, as we managed to get fronts of several newspapers.

Till a few years ago, paparazzi or its style of coverage were almost alien to India, heard mostly in the context of Princess Diana. But with celebs and entertainment increasingly taking centre stage in newspapers, there seems to be no getting away from it.

Celeb-chasing has become just another day at the office for photojournalists in Mumbai. However, everytime, we are faced with such assignments, it’s a difficult call on how far to go to get those pictures. On our part we try our best to avoiding paparazzi style of coverage.

For, as much as a picture may reveal the emotions or mood of the subject, it certainly does not speak of the jostling or life-threatening situations a photographer gets into to get the frame that tells the story, however simple the story may seem.

The caption from Barcelona didn’t mention it but it looks from this as though Robert Redford may be trying to work his way into the role of Jerry Springer. We’ve already had ‘The Opera’ so I guess it was only a matter of time until we got The Movie, although in truth Redford may not have been my first thought for the lead.

Then again maybe it’s Jerry Springer who is trying for the lead in the Robert Redford Story…

     
I’ve always thought the music business could learn a good lesson from the photography business. We embraced the digital world and they fought it to the bitter end.
You could buy and download a digital picture years before the music business would allow you the same choice with a song. Pictures were on your computer and your phone  a few trips around the sun  before music was.
That said, as a ” Work for Hire” most of us maintain no copyright protection on our work and as a  musician ; write and perform a song that goes to No.1 and you’re setting yourself up in a new house a new car and a whole new circle of friends. For a number of years now pictures have been reaching out to the world in a way the music business is only now beginning to understand.

Technology is making real time pictures a global reality.
Last night our crew of  5 Reuter photographers covered the 2008 Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Our field general (global entertainment photo editor Sam Mircovich ) was a scratch at game time after being put on the injured reserve list following a visit to the dentist earlier in the week.

Fred Prouser and Mario Anzuoni took on the task of editing, Lucy Nicholson set up lights in the deadline photo room and handled all the backstage photography, Danny Moloshok shot arrivals and I was inside shooting the pre-show and show. This awards show turns into a 14 hour day very quickly. As in all of our event coverage we
were all connected using Reuters  Panikon software. Danny and were on  OQO computers and EVDO cards from our positions and Lucy just dropping a disk with the editors who were working next to the deadline photo location. Processors were Rick in Colorado , Rich in Portland, Fred in San Diego and Stel on the picture desk in Washington D.C. (Note: Our field general  ,global entertainment photo editor  Sam Mircovich , was a scratch at game time after being put on the injured reserve list following a visit to the dentist earlier in the week

Danny shot arrivals and the images were sent from his position via Panikon and edited by Fred in the deadline room. Mario was editing my images from the show, I was sending from my seat about 150 feet away from the right side of the stage. The sprint EVDO cards were moving thumbs in about 2 seconds and pulls were about a minute on 4 to 5 megs depending on crops, the network was flying.

Fred is very good and finding the show rundown lists. It’s a huge help when your inside as once they go live its non-stop for 3 ½ hours and you have to think and plan ahead for what is coming next. As the TV cameras go to HD and get better he light seems to be getting worse. I shot mostly at 1000 ASA some at 160sec some at 200. I would drop down to 800ASA and 125th on the wide pictures. Most everything is shot on a 400 2.8 with a canon Mark 111. The auto white balance on the Mark 111 is junk so I dialed in at around 3600K and it seemed to hold pretty good for the entire show. Oh yes, I should mention the pre show … we shoot 100 awards before the live to air show begins ….. it’s a long day for everybody.

I’ve been trying to write about some sport images that caught my eye while trawling through the Reuters file but I keep getting hung up on our pictures from Kenya.

George Philipas

They are so raw, so powerful and uncompromising that even the most accomplished images of cossetted sportsmen performing in completely controlled circumstances seem insignificant in comparison.

George Philipas

What they portray is just hellish - a pile of charred bodies in a church, a young mother lying dead in her home while her distressed toddler wails unattended, a bright-eyed teenage boy with the shaft of an arrow sticking out of his head. 

Peter Andrews

People, dirt poor inflicting unimaginable cruelty and suffering on other equally poor people, the motivation for it really doesn’t matter, it is an appalling human tragedy.

Peter Andrews

When I was a kid I remember a truly shocking Oxfam poster with an image of a starving Biafran child, huge wide eyes, tormented by flies, stick thin and with an impossibly distended belly.

In the intervening period the image of a shocked, wide-eyed innocent has become an overused cypher for suffering in every subsequent African disaster, natural or otherwise, but there is nothing innocent about the look in this child’s eyes, rather there is mistrust and deep, deep hurt. 

Georgina Cranston

Given the scenes of mayhem which preceded it I was surprised to find this quiet image and amazed by the potency of the simple gesture of affection. I’ll get back to the sport pictures.

The worst snow storm this year in Southern China had brought train networks to a virtual standstill. Many Chinese hoping to travel home for the Lunar New Year this year’s faced long delays at this the busiest time of the year. 

Thousands of expectant travellers packed Guangzhou station, they were mostly migrant workers trying to get home for the traditional New Year’s Eve supper with their families. Many of them had waited for days for trains which did not arrive.

Outside filling the streets around the station, were tens of thousands more being held back by officials.

By the time I arrived at Guangzhou many of them had already waited for days in the snow and rain to gain access.

At first the soldiers and policemen managed to split the passengers into orderly groups - but there were just too many

. 

Everytime a train departed and the gates of the station were opened, everyone just made a dash for it with their luggage and for anyone in their way, like me, it was a terrifying experience.

Family unity is a very precious thing and it is perfectly understandable that anyone who had been working far away should want to get home for this auspicious occasion. 

For many of them, getting there was a cold, exhausting and risky business.

I hope yours will be a happy one requiring far less discomfort - ”Kung Hey Fat Choi.”

This is my favourite painting by Matisse - The Dance. It displays a perfect balance of colour, tone, line and shape. Looking at this picture you can hear the music, feel the movement, almost taste the wine the dancers have consumed and the sexual tension is almost palpable - all this from just paint on canvas. 

Good news photography captures the moment of an event and potentially evokes emotion that goes far beyond what is possible with paint and canvas.

Yesterday I spent the time looking at pictures on the wires not for news content but just in terms of the balance of shape, tone, colour and line. While a few sang out their song of pictorial balance, many sat silently, dull and flat 6 x 4 boxes of colour where composition seems to be an out of fashion and dirty word, shape a forgotten skill, line and design discarded for cramming the picture into the convenient proportion of one by one and a half.

Potential bloody noses lurk in portraits as faces of actresses, politicians and news makers crash into the borders of the frame in uncomfortable space; limbs are amputated, toes cut off full lengths; dead space or unnecessary highlights lead the eye away from the point of the picture; pointless deliberate or hopeless accidental skewing; words and letters from advertising hoardings draining the grace and power from a winning goal shot skillfully from the far end of the pitch in driving rain; intrusive shapes and incidental lines left in. So many visual blunders which could so easily be corrected by the juidcious application of a sensitive crop.

With a little more time spent listening to the shapes, tone, line and colour that scream out how to crop a picture there would be far more strong resonant images and fewer that lay silent and dull. The world does not fit neatly into “one by one and half” proportions. There is a place for the letterbox crop, the tilted image, the long thin upright, the image with acres of space or so cropped so tight that the viewer feel claustrophobic. There is of course room for the 6 x 4 but only when the voice of the dance permits.

Photo: Visitors to the preview of the “From Russia” exhibition of French and Russian master paintings 1870-1925 at the Royal Academy of Art in London view “Dance II” by Henri Matisse January 22, 2008.  London’s Royal Academy unveiled a blockbuster exhibition of paintings from Russian galleries on Tuesday, relieved the show has gone on despite an ongoing row over ownership of priceless works that threatened to derail it.       REUTERS/Stephen Hird     (BRITAIN)
 

Photographers John Gress and Jeff Haynes with some observations on how they covered and survived football below freezing point.  

John Gress

Before moving to Chicago from Portland in 2003, I had joked with my friends about getting to see football games at Green Bay in January.

Since then I have covered four games in the land of the’ cheese heads’. The first three, in sub freezing temperatures, were a picnic compared to what we had to endure January 20 during the NFC Championship football game. I never expected to be shooting a game taking place in weather below 10 degrees Farenheit, let alone a game below zero. At kick-off the temperature was 0F and by end of overtime, it was -2F.

New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes celebrates after kicking a 47-yard game winning field goal in over-time to defeat the Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s NFC Championship football game in Green Bay, Wisconsin January 20, 2008.          REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)

What do you wear to a game that cold? One of my colleagues remarked that in such circumstances it’s really not about fashion and another one added that its not even about making good pictures, it is purely a matter of survival!

Before heading down the tunnel to the field, I put on two pairs of socks, foot warmers, snow boots, long johns, felt lined jeans, a ski bib, a thermal top, a long sleeve shirt, two fleece jackets, a ninja mask, an Elmer Fudd hat, two pairs of gloves and a Parka. Just moving was a problem, which became abundantly clear to me when I placed  a camera around my neck and tried to slide it under the hood of my coat - the camera flew up into my face, split my lip and chipped a tooth. I had no choice but to head out to the game with blood oozing from my lip, hoping that it wouldn’t freeze and make things worse.
Surprisingly enough I was warm.. warmer than I had been the previous week when it was 30 degrees and snowing, only this time I was more padded than the Michelin man.

New York Giants players huddle in front of the heat-blowers to warm up during the NFL’s NFC Championship football game against Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin, January 20, 2008.     REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)

However, within the first few plays I encountered something I had not anticipated - I had to learn how to breath. Every time I exhaled through my mask, warm air would go everywhere fogging-up the view finder and the back of the camera. Not only could I not see, but I had to worry that the condensation would crystalize into ice before my eyes. I found that if I pulled the mask down to my chin and exposed most of my face to the arctic air, I could exhale downward while shooting, keeping the viewfinder free of fog, however this meant that with every breath ice would form on the back of the camera.

The cold was a true test of our digital cameras. My newest body wouldn’t focus and every time I wanted to review images on the back of a camera, it would take three times as long and the freezing liquid crystal display would fade from one image to the next rather than making the blunt transitions I was accustom to. Batteries died right and left, it took forever to change them wearing two pairs of gloves and pulling cards out took an eternity.

A Green Bay Packers fan cheers before the start of their NFL’s NFC Championship football game against the New York Giants in Green Bay, Wisconsin January 20, 2008.     REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)

With the game about to end, I put a wide angle lens on the camera around my neck and checked it to make sure it was set up correctly. When I ran on to the field and found Brett Favre, I put the camera up to my eye, pushed the shutter and nothing happened. The display on top was blank, and the camera wouldn’t even light up or take a picture for that matter. Two hours later once it warmed up inside, the display looked fine, but I still had to press the shutter button three times to get it to fire.

We survived but next day I had to call my dentist and realized that I had sustained mild frost bite on six of my finger tips.

Jeff Haynes

There is cold weather everywhere, whether you live in the North, South, East or West but then there is cold weather like that at Lambeau Field cold weather in Green Bay, Wisconsin during the NFC Championship game. 

I have worked in the cold throughout the world but the temperature in Green Bay that weekend where I spent five hours outside was the coldest I have been in for that amount of time.  It was cold enough it would freeze my breath right to the back of my camera. Causing a frost build up on the back of the camera and on my eyeglasses. The cameras worked well, but every function was slowed by the cold.  Another factor working against us was the game was at night, a dark cold night. Most other times while working in the cold, whether standing on the side of a mountain covering downhill skiing or even during the second coldest NFL game in Buffalo before this one, it is usually sunny outside, but this was night.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (lower right) is sacked in the second quarter by Green Bay Packers defender A.J. Hawk during the NFL’s NFC Championship football game in Green Bay, Wisconsin January 20, 2008. At left is Packers defender Nick Barnett.     REUTERS/Jeff Haynes (UNITED STATES)

Layers, layers and more layers along with those chemical hand and toe warmers placed in other places besides your hands and toes. Wearing layers was the only way to stay warm. I had on two pair of thermal underwear covered by wind and rain proof winter pants, two Under Armour shirts and a winter wind proof parka, a fur lined hat that covered my ears and my neck covered by a neck warmer, with two pairs of toe warmers covered by two pair of socks in winter boots.

Everyone will ask how you keep your hands warm. As any photographer who works in cold weather will tell you we all have different pairs of gloves for every type of cold. I found on my left hand, which does not use as many finger movements while taking photographs, a heavy mitten with a chemical hand warmer inside and on my right hand a wind proof thin glove with a hand warmer in the palm of the glove and placing it in a pocket in my jacket with another hand warmer inside after each timeout and play stoppage worked best for me.  Others used thermal heat packs for sore backs or toe and hand warmers on their backs around the kidney area to heat the blood as it flowed through the body as another way to try to keep warm for those extreme conditions.   

New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes celebrates after kicking a 47-yard game winning field goal in over-time to defeat the Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s NFC Championship football game in Green Bay, Wisconsin January 20, 2008.     REUTERS/Jeff Haynes (UNITED STATES)

The coldest I felt was when it went to overtime. No one wanted to play, watch or work any longer than we had planned for; but I’m telling you all, there was no place I would have rather been than on that side line, in every piece of cold weather gear I owned to witness one of the great NFL games of the season and the second coldest game in history.

I feel lucky just to have actually been there, cold and all!